HYDERABAD: If claims of experts are to be believed, Telangana’s beloved crown jewel Golconda Fort may miss out on the World Heritage Site tag owing to the lack of cooperation from the state government.
While delivering a talk about the work of ASI with regard to the restoration of Golconda Fort, Superintending Archaeologist of ASI Dr Milan Kumar Chauley claimed that multiple proposals to deal with encroachment and elevate the condition of the heritage site had been gathering dust on the state government’s table.
Recollecting a proposal, which is a prime deciding factor for the World Heritage Site tag, Chauley said, “When I first took up my post for the restoration works, we had been requested to build a second exit point for Golconda Fort. Currently, the site has only one entry and exit that caters to over 4 lakh people every day. However, the proposal is still stuck between offices with no active communication. A secondary exit is one of the important factors that decides the entry of a heritage site to be even considered for the coveted tag.”
Additionally, the archaeologist also claimed that the request for three acres of land to build a parking area has fallen on deaf ears.
He also told the gathering how the ASI has been asking the state government for a revenue map of the fort and the area around it to be able to take legal precedence about the increasing encroachment around it. That request too has been met with stoic silence, he said.
“While we have been restricted to only six monuments and two sites by the state government, the ASI would have loved to work on many more monuments and heritage sites,” he concluded.